Secularism in Syria

Just a week after the lower house of French parliament passed a measure banning burqas amid charges of discrimination and xenophobia, Syrias Ministry of Education has rather quietly banned the niqab a veil that leaves only the eyes uncoveredfrom public and private universities. And this ban came just a month after the Ministry transferred hundreds of teachers who wore the niqab at government run primary schools to positions outside the classroom.

It would be a stretch to suggest that the Syrian ban is the result of a widespread fear of foreigners as three quarters of the country is Sunni Muslim. It reflects, rather, as R.R. Reno suggested of the French ban , a desire to protect a secular civil society. While the French dressed up their defense of Laïcité in womens rights clothes, the Syrian Minister of Education has admitted that the niqab ban is to protect the objective, secular methodology of Syrian Schools.